Powerful nor’easter creates havoc in East
A relentless BOSTON — nor’easter pounded the Atlantic coast with hurricane-force winds and sideways-blown rain and snow Friday, flooding streets, grounding flights, stopping trains and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power from North Carolina to Maine.
Airlines canceled more than 2,800 flights, mostly in the Northeast. LaGuardia Airport in New York City grounded all flights, and John F. Kennedy, also in the city, grounded all but a few departures. Several airlines encouraged travelers to change their Friday and Saturday flights to avoid delays and cancellations at key airports across the Northeast.
The Eastern Seaboard was hammered by wind gusts exceeding 50 mph, with possible winds of 80 to 90 mph on Cape Cod. Hurricane-force winds of 78 miles per hour were reported off of Wellfleet, Massachusetts.
Powerful winds forced President Donald Trump to fly out of Dulles International Airport on Friday instead of Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where Air Force One is housed. The airport in Northern Virginia has runways that are more closely aligned with the gusty winds that were kicked up Friday by the nor’easter. Trump flew to Charlotte, North Carolina, to attend the funeral of the Rev. Billy Graham.
The impact of the storm was widely felt. Heavy snow fell in Ohio and upstate New York as the storm spun eastward. Boston south to Rhode Island was forecast to get 2 to 5 inches of snow from the late-winter storm.
Amtrak said all services along the Northeast Corridor, from Washington to Boston, are temporarily suspended “due to multiple weather related issues.” In New Jersey, a downed tree that hit overhead wires and suspended some New Jersey Transit commuter service.
The storm knocked out power to 700,000 residences and businesses from Michigan to North Carolina. More than 100,000 customers lost power in Washington, D.C. alone. The Office of Personnel Management closed all federal offices in the area for the day, while the Smithsonian museums also closed. Pennsylvania utilities report at least 65,000 outages in that state.
The poweroutage.us website, which tracks utilities across the nation, reported early Friday afternoon that Pennsylvania was the hardest hit state with more than 292,700 homes and businesses without electricity.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker activated 200 National Guard members to help with the storm.
“We’re expecting to see more severe flooding issues here than we did in the Jan. 4 storm,” when a nor’easter lashed the region with heavy snow and rain, he said.